Accused Club Q Shooter Expected in Court
The 23-year-old accused of carrying out a deadly shooting rampage at an L.G.B.T.Q. nightclub in Colorado Springs last year is scheduled appear in court on Monday to be formally charged with more than 300 counts including murder, attempted murder and hate crimes.
The appearance will be the first time in months that survivors of the shooting and family members of those killed will face the accused. Several of them said that they expected the defendant, Anderson Lee Aldrich, to plead guilty on Monday and to receive multiple life sentences in prison.
The victims and family members said that plea negotiations had been in the works for more than a month, and that prosecutors had informed them that the defendant was expected to formally plead guilty. The family members and survivors requested anonymity because they were not authorized to publicly discuss the plea arrangement, which would not be finalized until the court proceedings.
Prosecutors and defense lawyers declined to comment.
A guilty plea could avoid a drawn-out trial and bring the state’s criminal case to a close, seven months after the November shooting.
Source: The New York Times
